As 1999 drew to a close, many feared a computer-generated apocalypse.
Videos by American Songwriter
Y2K consumed culture with the anxiety of a fast-approaching future. Conan O’Brien regularly looked “into the future” on his late-night show with a skit called “In the Year 2000.” But if the calendar was doomed, or whatever the fear may have been, rock bands still churned out great music.
The three songs below represent different kinds of shifts. The first kick-started the career of a future stadium band that became the modern version of the last band on the list. And the middle song comes from a group passing its blueprint to the first while following the reinvention of the last. Confused yet?
All is revealed below. In the year 2000!
“Yellow” by Coldplay from Parachutes
It’s hard to remember Coldplay as a humble group of college students in London. During the height of Britpop, rock stars like Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn, and Jarvis Cocker dominated the headlines. But Coldplay emerged without the swagger or tabloid kerfuffle. This group didn’t form to cause a ruckus. Instead, they recorded a (mostly) quiet album of alternative soft rock.
“Yellow” became the new “Wonderwall.” You didn’t really know what it meant, but it didn’t matter. Singer Chris Martin echoed Jeff Buckley through the lens of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” And Martin’s band bashed its way through his tender and vulnerable song. It didn’t require a team of professional songwriters, and Coldplay, these days, is a very different thing. With “Yellow,” you glimpse a band at its early stage before the endless tweaking and polishing of pop producers. Listening to it feels like visiting an old friend.
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
“Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead from Kid A
The beginning of Radiohead’s groundbreaking fourth album still sounds as striking as it did in 2000. While Coldplay mined Radiohead’s back catalog for their new band, Thom Yorke defiantly ran in the opposite direction. Yorke had grown bored with rock music. He absorbed experimental electronic artists like Aphex Twin and began constructing what became a masterpiece.
OK Computer had already changed the sound of alternative rock. However, while other bands were busy catching up, Yorke abandoned all of it. The song form, the choruses, anything remotely familiar or predictable. “Everything in Its Right Place” continues the alienation themes of OK Computer. It’s Yorke trying to fit in. Fitting into the musical spaces where others wanted him. But he’s also navigating a confusing and changing world. It’s like a murmur of hope buried beneath an avalanche of chaos.
Yesterday, I woke up sucking on a lemon
Yesterday, I woke up sucking on a lemon
“Beautiful Day” by U2 from All That You Can’t Leave Behind
When U2 recorded Achtung Baby in Berlin, they saved their band by reinventing it. The Irish group made an art form out of mass commercialization and became the thing they wrote ironically about. Then, it reached its bloated excess on the 1997–1998 PopMart Tour. Released from the limitations of their signature sound, U2 soon became stuck inside the walls of a fully deconstructed rock band. Now what?
All That You Can’t Leave Behind is U2’s return-to-form album. They used the basic building blocks of the band—guitar, bass, drums, and voice—for new inspiration. The opening track, “Beautiful Day,” sounds like spring. In the opening verse, The Edge echoes Bono’s voice, singing, To take you out of this place. Like he’s throwing seeds into a garden. When the chorus blooms, it’s an utter release. It may well be U2’s last great album, and all they had to do was look inside their own DNA.
You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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